Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T18:09:36.415Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - Sustainability: A scientific dilemma

from Part I - Sustainable Development: Theories and Practices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2021

By
John Peet
Edited by
Pak Sum Low
Pak Sum Low
Affiliation:
Xiamen University Malaysia
Get access

Summary

Policy proposals on sustainability or sustainable development (SD) by mainstream economists, on the one hand, and mainstream scientists and engineers, on the other, are sufficiently different for it to be very difficult to find common ground. Approaches of these disciplines to the issue of continuous growth, for example of GDP, provide one obvious example.

In this chapter, the two approaches are shown to be derived from the utility-based and metabolic models of economic activity. These may be broadly described as representing, respectively, the weak and strong sustainability principles. In the opinion of the author, resolution of the apparent dilemma of choice between the two approaches is appropriately addressed not as an either/or dichotomy but as a both/and issue, reflecting an actualization hierarchy between the two models.

It is imperative that the scientific community contributes to identification of common ground and to policy developments in sustainability. Suggestions are made to assist in this process and move towards a holistic policy programme for SD in Aotearoa New Zealand.

(Note: While many aspects of the following discussion refer explicitly to Aotearoa/New Zealand, the overall argument is entirely general and relevant to most, if not all, countries.)

Keywords

Sustainability;sustainable development;economics;growth;technology;production;resources;utility;energy;complexity;eco-efficiency
Type
Chapter
Information
Sustainable Development: Asia-Pacific Perspectives , pp. 13 - 24
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Common, M. (1996) What Is Ecological Economics? Land & Water Resources R&D Corporation Occasional Paper Series 09/96, Canberra.Google Scholar
Daly, H. E. (1994) Green delusions. Ecological Economics, 9, 179–180.Google Scholar
Daly, H. (1999) Ecological Economics and the Ecology of Economics: Essays in Criticism, Cheltenham, United Kingdom, Edward Elgar Publishing.Google Scholar
Daly, H. (2002) Sustainable Development: Definitions, Principles, Policies. Invited Address, Washington, DC, World Bank, 30 April 2002.Google Scholar
Daly, H. (2003) Ecological Economics: The Concept of Scale and Its Relation to Allocation, Distribution, and Uneconomic Growth. Jasper, Alberta, Canada, Canadian Society for Ecological Economics Conference, 16–19 October.Google Scholar
Ehrlich, P. and Ehrlich, A. (1990) The Population Explosion. London, Hutchinson.Google ScholarPubMed
Ehrlich, P. R., Wolff, G., Daily, G. C., Hughes, J. B., Daily, S., Dalton, M. and Goulder, L. (1999) Knowledge and the environment. Ecological Economics, 30(2), 267–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisler, R. (1987) The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future. New York, HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Ekins, P., Simon, S., Deutsch, L., Folke, C. and De Groot, R. (2003) A framework for the practical application of the concepts of critical natural capital and strong sustainability. Ecological Economics, 44(2–3), 165–185.Google Scholar
Hamilton, C. (2002) Keynote address to the ECO Annual Conference, Environment and Conservation Organizations of NZ, Wellington, NZ, June 2002 (summarized in ECO newsletter ECOLINK, October 2002, p. 9).Google Scholar
Hawken, P., Lovins, A. and Lovins, L. H. (1999) Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution. Boston, New York, and London, Little, Brown & Company.Google Scholar
Martinez-Alier, J., Munda, G. and O’Neill, J. (1997) Some theories and methods in Ecological Economics: A tentative classification. Paper to ISEE Conference, Boston, MA, August 1997, p. 2.Google Scholar
NZ Government (2002) The Government’s Approach to Sustainable Development, August 2002.Google Scholar
NZ Treasury (2002) Chapter Five: Growth and the Environment in its Briefing to the Incoming Government, 2002.Google Scholar
Patterson, M. (2003) Massey University, New Zealand, unpublished report to Landcare Research Ltd., with permission.Google Scholar
Peet, J. (1992) Energy and the Ecological Economics of Sustainability. Washington, DC, Island Press.Google Scholar
Peet, J. (2002a) Technology for Sustainability – A Noble Fallacy? ANZSEE 2002, Sydney, 2–4 December.Google Scholar
Peet, J. (2002b) Chemical Engineering & Sustainability: Is Green Processing Enough? Asia-Pacific Conference on Chemical Engineering (APCChE), Christchurch, New Zealand, September, paper # 235. Proceedings on CDROM.Google Scholar
Peet, J. (2002c) Sustainable development – Why is it so difficult? Pacific Ecologist, 4, Summer 2002/2003, pp. 16–20.Google Scholar
Peet, J. (2004) Economic systems and energy, conceptual overview. In Encyclopedia of Energy, vol. II, pp. 103–115. Amsterdam, Elsevier Inc.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peet, J. and Bossel, H. (2000) An ethics-based system approach to indicators of sustainable development. International Journal of Sustainable Development, 3(3), 221–238.Google Scholar
Peet, K. and Peet, J. (2000) Poverties and Satisfiers: A Systems Look at Human Needs; Creating a New Democracy, Poverty, Prosperity, Progress. Devnet Conference, Wellington, NZ, 17–19 November.Google Scholar
von Weizsäcker, E., Lovins, A. B. and Lovins, L. H. (1997) Factor 4: Doubling Wealth – Halving Resource Use. The new Report to the Club of Rome, London. Earthscan, Australia, Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Zovanyi, G. (2004) A growth-management strategy for the Auckland region of New Zealand: pursuit of sustainability or mere growth accommodation? International Journal of Sustainable Development, 7(2), 121–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×